“Hey, rich bitch!” squawks the emaciated ice junkie skipping along the Bendigo street Jack Daniels can in hand. Her target, an elderly woman lugging two Salvos bags, looks bewildered as the sprite runs past her, grabs an abandoned receipt from the footpath, shouts “11 dollars” and uses it to wipe her backside before dancing out […]
It’s a bit unkind, I’ll admit, but a little politeness can easily lead to misunderstanding. Take the God-botherers at my door recently. Nice enough blokes so rather than sool the dogs on to them I heard them out, for a bit, before suggesting if they had a leaflet I’d give it a read. “Thanks guy, […]
Image: Scene from A Haunting in Venice, 20th Century Studios Easily thrown off script, I am, especially by subjects such as the supernatural, mysteries, bushrangers, UFOs … that sort of thing. Several events have distracted me lately from my usual ruminations. Not getting a lot of work done, fitful slumber, glazed eyeballs. I’m blaming […]
Long-standing joke in my family is that the many French letters my grandmother was sent by her Gallic aunt a century ago were addressed to her at ‘Truganina Loose Bag’. Pretty cruel, really. She was a darling thing. Widowed at 47 with eight kids, she drew on country girl nous garnered on the rocky windswept […]
A downward dog-led economic recovery is probably not what you’d expect to counter the Covid/volcano/earthquake/tsunami-led tourism recession of recent years in Indonesia’s Ring of Fire. For one thing, yoga fanaticism, spiritual con artists – think breatharians and didgeridoo healing – were around before the ongoing flight cancellations of late. But sticking your bum in the […]
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know housing in Australia is changing. Has been for quite some time. Tighter lots, increasingly prolific renewable energy, gas on the way out, recycled water, floor plans changing to work from home, the shrinking back yard, are all the norm. Today’s greenfield communities are far removed from […]
Above: A Mayan space traveller as suggested by Erich von Daniken in his Chariots of the Gods STARLOG PALINDROME 230623: Was getting worried there for a bit. No signs of intelligent life trying to make contact with Earth for quite some time. Makes you wonder what kind of future our kids might have without […]
Above: cartoonist Johannes Leak’s take on the week’s revelations. It’s good news week, Someone’s dropped a bomb somewhere, Contaminating atmosphere, And blackening the sky … Good song from the old one-hit wonder Hedgehoppers Anonymous, even if its 1965 lyrics seem a little dated and, frankly, a bit out there too. Someone’s found a way to […]
Cold as charity is a term that’s uncomfortably familiar to many people who have a new Geelong sanctuary for their lost and stolen childhoods. It’s hard to imagine just how chilling that charity was for orphans abandoned by destitute, deceased or disappearing parents and stab-passed into the tender cruelties of church, government or community so-called […]
Cold as charity is a term that’s uncomfortably familiar to many people who have a new Geelong sanctuary for their lost and stolen childhoods. It’s hard to imagine just how chilling that charity was for orphans abandoned by destitute, deceased or disappearing parents and stab-passed into the tender cruelties of church, government or community so-called […]
